The present invention is directed to personal communication systems. More particularly, the invention is a system for facilitating personal communications of a user having multiple types of electronic devices.
In view of the tremendous array of electronic devices currently available, individuals currently have multiple different types of equipment for fulfilling their communication needs. For example, a cell phone may be used for voice or data communications, a PDA for calendaring and appointments, a laptop for corporate and personal uses. Additional equipment may be located in an automobile, at work or at home. In the future, it is expected that the use of electronic communicating will only increase. Of particular interest is when some or all of the types of electronic devices are wireless devices.
In such situations where numerous wireless electronic devices, (hereinafter wireless transmit/receive units or WTRUs), are utilized by a single user to communicate, several technical problems arise concerning: 1) efficiency of signal transmissions to the user; 2) simple and robust security procedures; and 3) mobility management. In prior art systems, each WTRU is treated as a separate entity with its own address and communications. Security associations as well as mobility management is done separately for each WTRU.
With respect to the communication process, the traditional approach is to treat each WTRU as separate equipment with its own address and duplicate the communication processes, whether they be data transmission, user authentication or location updating. This results in reduced efficiency of the network due to multiple transmissions of user data; reduced user convenience due to multiple user authentications; increased signaling traffic; and inability to use smart routing algorithms due to separate location updating.
It would be desirable to have a personal communication system which promotes efficiency for signal transmissions to the user by including a simple and robust security procedure and by providing simple mobility management.